Editorial: California’s disturbing new trend is hate crimes

Protesters against hate crimes in San Jose. California saw a statewide spike in hate crimes last year - the third year in a row of increased crimes against people for their race, religion, or sexual orientation.

According to a report from the Attorney General’s office, crimes in every significant hate category — including race-related crimes, crimes against people based on religious grounds, and crimes based on a person’s real or perceived sexual orientation — increased.

There were 1,093 hate crimes reported in 2017. Since 2014, the annual number of hate crimes reported has jumped by 44 percent.

African Americans and gay men were the likeliest victims of hate crimes, according to the report.

But the very significant increase — 51.8 percent, over 2016 — in the number of hate crime victims who are Latino or Hispanic suggests the increasingly ugly national debate around immigration and asylum is taking a toll.

California has an international reputation for being a liberal mecca, but that reputation has never held true for everyone in the state.

Since this is the third year in a row that California has had a significant increase in the number of hate crimes, we need to reflect on the fact that too many Californians don’t believe in tolerance and peaceful co-existence with all people.

Candidates who openly embrace white supremacy and Nazism are running for office across the country.

President Trump’s vitriolic rhetoric has provided a huge platform for hateful ideas.

It takes a tremendous amount of work to create an inclusive society, and these numbers should remind us how far we have to go.

This commentary is from The Chronicle’s editorial board. We invite you to express your views in a letter to the editor. Please submit your letter via our online form: SFChronicle.com/letters.